As described in the Institute of Medicine report "To Err 1s Human" (1999), health care errors in hospitals cause as many as 98,000 deaths per year, in addition to thousands of injuries, infections, complications, and disabilities. Progress is beginning to be made in some areas, such as medication safety, but impaired and dysfunctional communication, which has been recognized as a major contributor to medical error, has received little attention. The National Patient Safety Foundation, in conjunction with the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences, is planning the third rational "Annenberg Conference on Patient Safety." This conference, to be held in St. Paul, MN, May 16-18, 2001, will focus on the crucial role of research in communication for the purpose of reducing medical error and improving patient safety. Research and practice in a variety of areas will be presented, including the complexity, strategy and planning of communication, professionals' and patients' disparate understanding of risk, communications at the sharp end, intrastaff communication, effective communication as a core element in a culture of safety, human factors, health literacy, communications between providers and patients/families, disclosing health care errors; and the threat of litigation as a deterrent to disclosure and communication. In addition, a powerful one-act play on aviation communication and safety, "Charlie-Victor-Romeo," will be presented. It is expected that this dissemination conference will propel communication and research on communication into a central position of importance in the field of patient safety.